Bitter Dawn
by Noa McCormick
Summary: What do you do when you realise that it's wrong? [KOPA x ASANTE]


First attempt at a oneshot.

EDIT 7-6-2014: Fixed some errors and such. Thanks for reading btw!

* * *

If he could add up his current feelings at that one moment, it would most likely be that one saying he had heard from way back.

'Absence makes the heart grow fonder.'

As a stuffy nosed cub, Kopa found little meaning in those words. In fact, the further away girls were, the better. All he could do now was laugh at the cruel irony that his younger self had bestowed onto him unwittingly. Anything except **_that_** was acceptable to him. Anything except that lingering feeling of.. what was it called? Disgust? No, not disgust.. but it was something similiar to that.

Whatever it was, it conveyed the fact well enough that he was quickly descending into the depths of hell known as 'love'. He never figured himself to be that, but.. there it was. It came out of nowhere and clawed at his heart, worming its way inside through the gashes and infecting everything else in his body. Whenever she was there, he would take pause automatically. Whenever she talked, his ears would shoot up and face the direction of her voice. Whenever she merely acknowledged him, his stomach felt like it was going to consume itself.

No doubt about it, he thought bitterly to himself one morning, it was love.

And that was wrong. Wrong, wrong in so many ways. Lion and.. hyena? The thought gave him a bad case of shivers down the spine, but for each thought of absolute repulsion he tried to will into himself there was that positive thought that tried to justify it. And to Kopa's great annoyance, the positive felt much more natural to accept than the negative.

It felt like a twisted version of his parents story - they knew each other as cubs, they seperated for a while until they grew up, by sheer coincidence they encounter one another as adults, happily ever after. He remembered hearing about it as a cub, but probably just as a way to gross out his younger self. Seems like he wasn't so different in the end, but he would have to go through a world of growing up to realise it.

Now that he did? Well, he had no idea. It was all a conflicted mess. He could consult the parents on the issue, but from what he gathered they had hyena issues; he was even lucky to get Asante to stay here and being forthright with his thoughts would probably mentally break them. Kiara? No help. Kovu? Not much help either. The power of love was undoing several years of pure brainwashing and Kopa felt hesitant to interrupt that process. Vitani? She was too distant for that sort of talk. And there was no way that Kopa would ever go to the pride's lionesses. They were loyal members of the Pride Lands, but they were chatty and the whole 'distant prince' thing was starting to become a tired thing for them.

He had no options. None at all.

The new dawn was rising, beautiful radiant colours piercing the horizon. The bitter morning air stinging his nose and tongue. That strange feeling of a new day lingering in his mind. Wondering what to do with himself, with his thoughts. Pride Rock, a home he once had and still has, stood tall and started to acquire the orange glow given off by the sun. The lions would rise soon.

Kopa made himself scarce, at least for the moment.

* * *

The Elephant Graveyard. Now Kopa started to appreciate the bitter cold more than that awful sulphuric taste in his mouth. It was like he had proceeded to eat a pile of ashes fresh from a forest fire. But despite the unpleasantness.. this was where it started. The start of that lifelong friendship they had pledged, even with their differences they had saved each others lives.

He never forgot that. Even when she left for good, and she wasn't around to save him again. But he never held it against her.

Still, it would have been nice.. but he wasn't angry about it. He stopped being angry about it ages ago. It was pointless to kick up buried emotions that he had come to terms with.

Friends.. it was funny how making friends came about. Sure, he fought with Afua day in day out as a cub, but they still had each others backs. Even the whole Beba incident was just water over the falls then. But then, reality ensued and soon his friend was gone along with his mother to greener fields. At least he had Pimbi as company, as well as Jambo and Kwaheri, but hyraxs and monkeys weren't lions.

Then again, a hyena wasn't as well. But being each others heroes as opposed to fighting or taunting each other had a certain charm to it that resonated in those early memories of his life. When he was young and fresh in the world, his idiotic courage saved a life he was taught to believe was evil and almost got himself drowned in a tropical storm.

He gave a huff at that; no matter what, it seemed like he could never die. The Elephant Graveyard was showing no signs of anything dangerous coming from the alcoves that twisted along the various cliff faces, the scents of the things that lived here long gone. Kopa found some twisted irony in trying to find something alive in a dead place, and he relaxed when he could confirm inwardly with himself that nothing would come of harm to him. But then again, he wasn't a cub. He could handle himself now as an adult.

Paws scuffed the sooty ground, his golden paws turning a temporary murky brown. What was it? Ash? Dead bone dust? What a weird place to be right next to the Pride Lands. It was any wander that the successors to the throne had lived to carry on the line. Lucky little things, all of them.

"Figured I'd find you here." A voice greeted casually from behind, prompting the lion to prick up his ears and face backwards automatically (and cursing in his mind) before turning around. Asante. There she was, that memory of that tiny hyena pup disappearing and being replaced with that strong, larger adult female he had gotten to know again.

Kopa gave a small huff as Asante took to his side. "You followed my trail. Don't be so nice to yourself."

"Not my fault you don't take a bath." She replied back jokingly.

He retorted back. "You're not a proper lady yourself."

Asante just nodded her head proudly, to which her lion friend just rolled his eyes. Insult backfires seemed to be her specialty. But it was all in good jest. Kopa looked over to her, those strange feelings flaring up again but he tried to ignore it.

"The pride giving you much trouble?" He asked, noting how bright she'd become compared to the past few days. To his shame though, this was the first time Kopa had ever asked anything relating to that. He had been too fired up in reuniting with the family. He felt himself relax when Asante shook her head.

"It was like the last time I met your parents Kopa," She said, and the memories came back to when he had convinced her to meet his parents. It had gone smoothly the first time around, but Kopa had speculated that it was just his parents being nice to him. He felt that his arrival back home had transferred some of his anxiety onto her, but it also went smoothly the second time around. "The other lionesses give me that look, but you know, what can you do?"

He gave a smile. "Good."

Silence fell between them for a few moments, and then Asante asked the question she probably was going to ask before they delved into a different topic. "So what are you doing out here? Reliving your moment as a hero, defender of hyenas?"

"Yeah, something like that," Kopa said distantly, looking out at the vast expanse of nothing. "Just thinking about the times we had saved each other because we were stupid little kids and how we made that 'friends for life' pledge. You remember that?"

"How could I not?" Asante replied. "I held onto that pledge for dear life when you disappeared and the pack left. I couldn't believe that you were gone.. man, it was waking up in the morning and finding out that your best friend is gone, possibly dead.. you have no idea how much that tore me apart."

"You gave me a few when we found each other."

Asante smiled. "Best day of my life."

Kopa smiled back at Asante, and her fierce eyes. Full of fury and courage, yet still had that youthful quality to them. Kings above, he adored her. They shared something special. It was little conversations like these that made it worth it to him. And yet, the more he cherished it, the more he realised that he had fallen in love with her. He made a disgusted little noise out of pure reaction, which did nothing more than pique Asante's curosity as he looked away. "What's wrong, lion prince?"

"Ugh.. nothing. Just.. thinking about the time I almost drowned in that river." It was a lie, but she seemed to take it nonetheless.

"That was my fault, you know."

Kopa looked at her with a quizzical look. "Your fault? No, I was the hairball-for-a-brain that went along with it."

Asante sighed. "Yeah but I teased you into it. That.. that wasn't cool, you know?"

"You know I'm not mad at you for it. But I still blame myself."

"And I'll blame myself, thank you very much."

He gave a mock huff. "Fine."

"Fine." She returned.

Old friends. They were old friends indeed. Both developing a mean streak that bounced off each other, but it worked. Kopa was thankful for that. He enjoyed those little moments where something serious was turned into something at least partially funny.

Kopa took a deep breath and stared out to the horizon again, not really knowing where to look. "So.. Asante. We're adults, you and I. Can I ask you something extremely hypothetical?"

Asante tilted her head in response, giving a good lookover to Kopa. He was trying to be sneaky with something. "Yeah."

"Say that you, I don't know, find a mate in someone not a hyena.. or at the very least, you like someone like.. a lion or a cheetah. How would you feel about that? I mean, it'd be pretty strange, right?"

The female hyena did nothing but blink at her lion friend, taking in the words that he had just said. Some very personal questions for her, sure, but that was the least of her worries when she realised what he was getting at. And her eyes widened at this.

"Kopa, you're a lion.." She started, and Kopa felt everything go bad. She knew. She knew so badly. It was that tone of voice that a mother adopts to her child when she has to break the news that he can't see that friend that has a bad influence on him.

Immediately, he pinched the bridge of his nose and interrupted her. "I know Asante, I know. I get it." He opened his eyes to look at her, and to his surprise, he wasn't faced with a look of disgust at his direction but a sympathetic one.

Asante started again. "Look Kopa.. I know we have a lot of history. And I can understand that would fall into something more.. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't felt the same way but the fact is that you're a lion, I'm a hyena and it's wrong. It was what we were raised to be."

"I know, I know. But if that were true, would I have saved you from that snake all those years ago?"

"I get what you're saying. I thought my parents rants about lions being scum of Africa was particularly awful and annoying, but.. I'm sorry Kopa. You're a good friend to me but I cannot like you in.. that way. It just feels, as I said, wrong."

Kopa sighed. "Yeah.. yeah I know. I was the same. But you know what Asante? It has gotten to that point where I'm just ignoring what you look like and focusing on what you are like. You're right, we did have a lot of history. I had gotten to know you as a cub and I had gotten to know you as an adult. With all that, you've just cemented yourself into my memories. You're someone I will never forget."

"Kopa.." Asante said, moved by his words. Sometimes he never said anything other than some nonchalant noises to indicate 'yes' or 'no', but this.. she wasn't expecting this. And this was making it all the harder for her to focus.

He watched how distressed she became from all this, and immediately the lion got to his paws. "Look.. I'm not going to force you Asante. I love you too much for that. I'm just sorry that I made things worse. You're the best friend a lion could ever have. You're an amazing hyena." And so he prodded off back to the Pride Lands, leaving the lone Asante sitting there. No tears breaking forth yet, but she felt herself tremble at the revelation. The words.

She got up and proceeded back to the Pride Lands too.

_I'm sorry Kopa.. I love you too. But we're too different.. lion and hyena.. we can be friends, but not mates. I know you understand._

_You're an amazing lion too._

* * *

**_END_**


End file.
